The Skirt Luxury of Lutes

The Skirt-Luxury of Lutes is a form of music used during marches and military engagements originating in The Nation of Meeting. The form guides musicians during improvised performances. A speaker recites any composition of The Glittery Larks while the music is played on a udon and a anur. The musical voices bring melody with harmony. The melody has short phrases throughout the form. It is performed in the shibbi rhythm. Throughout, when possible, performers are to make trills and locally improvise.

• The speaker always should feel mysterious.
• The udon always does harmony and should perform sweetly. The voice stays in the strident high register.
• The anur always does the main melody and should be spirited.
• The Skirt-Luxury of Lutes has a well-defined multi-passage structure: an introduction and a verse and a brief chorus possibly all repeated.
• The introduction is at a hurried pace, and it is to become softer and softer. This passage features only melodic tones and intervals. The passage is performed using the cish scale. The passage should sometimes include a rising melody pattern with glides, grace notes and staccato, sometimes include a falling melody pattern with sharpened fifth degree as well as legato, often include a rising-falling melody pattern with flattened second degree on the fall, sharpened fourth degree on the rise and sharpened fifth degree on the fall as well as grace notes and mordents and always include a falling-rising melody pattern with glides and arpeggios.
• The verse is at a walking pace, and it is to start loud then be immediately soft. This passage typically has some sparse chords. The passage is performed using the icmon scale. The passage should sometimes include a rising-falling melody pattern with grace notes and staccato.
• The chorus is consistently slowing, and it is to be moderately soft. Only one pitch is ever played at a time in this passage. The passage is performed using the ramet scale. The passage should often include a rising melody pattern with mordents and staccato and always include a falling-rising melody pattern with flattened second degree on the fall.
• Scales are constructed from twelve notes spaced evenly throughout the octave. The tonic note is a fixed tone passed from teacher to student. Preferred notes in the fundamental scale are named. The names are ani (spoken an, 5th), shato (sha, 11th) and almef (al, 12th).
• The cish hexatonic scale is constructed by selection of degrees from the fundamental scale. The degrees selected are the 1st, the 2nd, the 4th, the 6th, the 9th and the 11th.
• The icmon hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named agtha and othag.
• The agtha tetrachord is the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd and the 6th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The othag trichord is the 8th, the 11th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The ramet hexatonic scale is thought of as two disjoint chords spanning two perfect fourths. These chords are named rom and dik.
• The rom trichord is the 1st, the 2nd and the 6th degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The dik tetrachord is the 8th, the 10th, the 11th and the 13th (completing the octave) degrees of the semitone octave scale.
• The shibbi rhythm is made from three patterns: the tikbo, the seggu and the musda. The patterns are to be played over the same period of time, concluding together regardless of beat number.
• The tikbo rhythm is a single line with five beats. The beats are named apu (spoken ap), sluste (slu), itlud (it), eman (em) and oth (oth). The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x x x - X |
• where X marks an accented beat, x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The seggu rhythm is a single line with four beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | - x x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.
• The musda rhythm is a single line with two beats. The beat is stressed as follows:
• | x - |
• where x is a beat, - is silent and | indicates a bar.

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